Dr Steve Lisansky
Chief Executive Officer
Steve has 37 years of experience in industrial business development and research. He co-founded CPL in 1987 and now works mainly on consultancy. Around 300 projects for 120 clients in the past 21 years have addressed many commercial and technical challenges in ingredients for food, dietary supplements, feed, etc., as well as in management consulting and biopesticides for crop protection. He has >220 publications as author and editor including private client reports,
multi-client studies, directories, books, journals, scientific papers, chapters,
articles and reviews plus lectures, seminars, and interviews.
He was previously founder and Director of Microbial Resources, a biotechnology company in biopesticides
and before that was with Tate & Lyle Research. He did his academic work
at Brandeis (Biology) and Yale (Plant Physiology and Biochemistry). He has qualifications and considerable experience, some of it good, in finance and management.
Dr Esther Hunter
Chief Operating Officer
Esther has 15 years of experience in Business Consulting and Executive Search. She has led and worked on >90 projects, many focusing on ingredients for health and nutrition in food and in dietary supplements. In Executive Search, she has successfully placed senior people in global companies in food, OTC pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
Her experience includes work in the pharmaceutical and complementary therapy sectors on products such as prebiotics, probiotics, hydrocolloids and many other soluble fibres. In animal feed she has worked on enzymes, acidifiers and probiotics and in biotechnology on DNA fingerprinting, GMO enzymes and on producing valuable plant compounds by new techniques.
Esther is presently obtaining an additional degree in Chinese and complementary medicine. Earlier she carried out academic and commercial research at Oxford University, Reading and Guy's Hospital in food allergy, immunology, endocrinology, cardiology, respiratory medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology and oncology. She did her PhD at Reading in medical immunodiagnostics and her BSc in Biochemistry at Glasgow.
Dr Robert Harwood
Principal Consultant
Robert joined CPL in 2002 and has significantly strengthened the Company's capabilities in financial and market analysis. He led CPL's team of industry experts in a multi-million dollar distressed debt due diligence. He has worked on many 'healthy' ingredients, acquisition strategies and trans-Atlantic partnerships covering topics such as fine chemicals, soluble fibres, bulking agents and unusually, intra-ocular lenses. In executive search, he has worked on several difficult, but ultimately successful placements.
Before that Robert spent five years in new product development and regulatory work with Inveresk (now Charles River), a contract research laboratory. Robert did his MBA at Edinburgh University, his PhD at the University of Southampton and his BSc at Imperial College, University of London.
Joe Hart
Principal Consultant
Joe
joined CPL in 2005 and over the past five years he has led and participated in consultancy projects mainly in the area of health
and nutrition as well as having successfully carried out
a number of searches with some focus on the animal feed sector.
Joe brought to CPL his 24 years of front-line experience in the food and food ingredients industries. He held marketing and technical positions with Danisco, Nestlé and Unigate where his areas included anti-microbials, flavours, petfoods, fermented foods and others. Joe has brought additional candor and practical focus to CPL's consultancy projects as well as an experienced operational understanding of personnel requirements to CPL's Executive Search work.
Joe did post-graduate research at Reading's National Institute for Dairy Research and the University of Kent at Canterbury. His BSc in Applied Microbiology is from the University of East Anglia.
Dr Dave Peterson
Principal Consultant
Dave joined CPL in 2009 with over 30 years of industry experience creating and commercialising new products in diverse markets and businesses. For 17 years at International Paper, he developed new products in packaging materials, functional coatings, radiation curable materials and structural wood composites. He was responsible for managing programs in materials development and food sciences as well as NPD in paperboard structures and graphic arts.
From 1993-2005 he was responsible for global R&D and NPD for Arizona Chemical Company. Part of the senior management team, he was a participant in international acquisitions, built a new commercial/laboratory center in Europe and expanded domestic lab facilities. He became highly skilled in leading strategic alignment programs with key customers and managing intellectual property assets for maximum value. In his last position as Director of Emerging Technologies, he was responsible for business and commercial development in cosmetics, personal care, air care and functional food markets. More recently, he has been providing product and commercial development expertise to chemical industry clients seeking new markets and/or applications.
Dave completed degrees in chemical biology at the University of Virginia and wood chemistry/structure at Duke University and a PhD in wood chemistry and science at North Carolina State University.
Mr Colin G Dudley
Principal Consultant
Colin joined CPL in 2009 bringing over 30 years experience in global blue-chip companies within the Food & Beverages industry. He held the position of Product Development Manager with United Biscuits(UK) & Cadbury Schweppes (ANZ), Business Development Manager with Bunge (Aus), Global Innovation Manager at Cadbury Schweppes (UK) progressing to a Research Director at the Global Science Centre. His areas of focus included branded developments in baking, chocolate, confectionery, chewing gum, dairy and ingredient research.
Colin’s in-depth understanding of Asian markets and cultures was obtained during years living and working in Australia/Asia. Colin also brings a wealth of practical experience in taking innovative consumer-led concepts onto global markets supported by stage-gate management tools. An example of a global team project within Cadbury Schweppes Innovation was the launch of 24-7, an innovative chewing gum. It demonstrates what can be achieved by teamwork; development was conducted in France, manufactured in China for an Australia/New Zealand launch.
Colin studied Food Manufacturing, Processing & Food Science at Hollings College, Manchester University. Learning to fly light aeroplanes is a life ambition and he is currently training for a Private Pilots Licence.
Megha Chugh
Business Analyst
Megha joined CPL in 2008 and has worked on omega fatty acids, an extensive review of vegetable proteins, dairy proteins, beta-glucan and opportunities in health and nutrition as well as on partnerships for several clients. Based on her MSc research, she has completed four refereed publications on the hospital-acquired gut infection from Clostridium difficile.
She was awarded an MSc in Biomedical Sciences with distinction from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland in October 2008, and a BSc in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University in Canada in November 2007. She pursued a minor in Management while reading her BSc. Her technical knowledge of microbiology enhances CPL’s knowledge in this field and her interest and enthusiasm in combining science and business contributes to her strength as a Business Analyst. She is fluent in English, Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil.
Keith
is a specialist in recruiting senior executives and key senior scientists and technologists
for the food and related industries. He has been in Executive Search since 1994
and has been recruiting scientists since co-founding CPL in 1987. 
Michael joined CPL in 2006 and has worked
on a large number of executive placements as well as on acquisitions
in the animal feed sector and
biopesticides. He had 12 years of industrial
experience in a FMCG environment,
mainly in the areas of health and personal care, toiletries and household
cleaning. He held technical
roles in research and development, project management and technology
transfer as well as commercial
functions in finance, procurement and marketing at Gillette and Reckitt Benckiser. In addition,
Michael’s networks and knowledge of the fragrance industry further
augments CPL’s existing network
and expertise in the cosmetics industry.
